1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a copying apparatus which reads an image from a document, converts it into print-use data, and forms the image on a recording medium in accordance with the print-use data.
2. Description of Related Art
Normally, facsimiles are provided with the finction to copy and output an image formed on a document. To copy a document image to paper, first, in the same way as at document transmission, the image is read into memory as electronic data line-by-line by a scanner. Next, in the same way as at image reception, the image data is read from the memory and recorded onto paper by a recording section. Since this method requires memory for storing only one line of data for copying, it contributes to a reduction in memory capacity.
Meanwhile, in the case of a multiple copy operation for obtaining a plurality of copies from an identical document, accumulating all of the image data for the document in memory would eliminate the need for repeated reading by the scanner because the accumulated data can be used to repeat the recordation onto paper. As a result, processing for obtaining a plurality of copies could be sped up.
However, to obtain a plurality of copies, a large memory is required because all of the image data on the document must be stored in the memory. Accordingly, when the facsimile has large quantities of data for transmission in the memory, not all of the image data of a document for copying can be stored in the memory. Consequently, the multiple copy function as described above may not be executed. In addition, it is undesirable to provide a large memory only for the purpose of obtaining a plurality of copies, since this function will increase the cost of the facsimile.